“We’re using RepairLogic now to source [repair] procedures a little more efficiently,” she said. “All our technicians have a Gmail account, and we can send the link [from RepairLogic] to them and they can click on that and all the procedures are right there on their laptop. And we can attach that link into CCC. We’re no longer printing out 100 pages and rescanning those into CCC.”
Another change: “We’re also doing a lot of paint invoicing now because those paint material rates just do not cover what we’re spending,” Silva said.
Recruiting Changes
Mark Probst, owner of two Probst Auto Body shops in rural towns in Illinois, said he’s changed how he hires new technicians.
“We haven’t hired an experienced technician in, gosh, seven or eight years,” Probst said. “We decided we were going to grow them ourselves, in-house. We’ve been fairly successful at it. Right now between the two locations I think I have four full-time techs in their 20s. I’ve got two kids still in school working here part-time.”
Probst has also been able to regularly hire students from a community college about 40 miles from his shops.
“I’ve been real happy, and at this point, there would be a lot of considerations before I would hire an experienced tech anymore,” he said. “We’ve had really good luck growing our own.”
He said he believes in getting the idea of working in the collision repair industry into students’ minds early on.
“We have kindergarteners come to our shop for field trips every year,” he said. “Last year, I talked to a class of fourth-graders. Last week, one of my managers went to talk to junior high students. I don’t think we can plant those seeds early enough. I have three teenagers at home, and so I know that many kids don’t know what they want to do. I don’t think there’s any time too early to plant those seeds.”
John Yoswick